ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the boutique approach and its potential for application to real academic library services. Beatrice Pulliam considers the impact of the information commons on changes to space in academic libraries in the USA. She compares examples of changes made in two different higher education institutions to boutique principles. Jane Secker considers the relationship of research needs to the development of research activities in the application of the boutique approach to research activities. David Streatfield, well known for his work on impact and library services, considers what impact is and how to measure it in a boutique context, an aspect essential to, and at the heart of, any successful library service. The book also explores how to actually go about implementing and managing a personalised approach.
